Chapter 3 - THE DIAMONDS ON THE FLOOR
Nobody breathed. The teardrop diamonds caught the light of the chandelier, flashing with a brilliant, cold fire against the dark wood of the floor. Luca stared at them. His hands, usually so steady, curled into fists at his sides. "Where did you get those?" Luca’s voice was barely a whisper, but it carried to every corner of the massive dining room. Marcus took a slow step backward. The arrogant smirk was entirely gone from his face. "Luca, listen to me. I found them. I was investigating the old case. I tracked down the fence who bought them fifteen years ago. I was going to give them to you tonight as a wedding gift." It was a lie. I could see the sweat forming on his forehead. I could see the way his eyes darted toward the locked doors. Vanessa suddenly broke. "He's lying!" she screamed, her voice cracking. "He's had those earrings for ten years! He showed them to me when we first met!" Marcus spun toward her. "Shut up, Vanessa!" "No!" Vanessa stepped away from him, moving closer to her mother. Helen instinctively put her arm around her daughter. "He used them to fund his first operation, Luca! He bought his way into your crew using the money he made pawning your mother's necklace. He kept the earrings as a trophy!" The guests gasped. Luca didn't shout. He didn't explode. Instead, a terrifying, absolute calm settled over him. "You pawned my mother's necklace," Luca repeated. He wasn't asking a question. He was rendering a verdict. "He made me do this!" Vanessa sobbed, gesturing wildly between Luca and Marcus. "Marcus knew you were looking for a wife. He knew you wanted someone from a respectable family. He found me. He paid off my debts. He told me to pretend my mother was dead so you wouldn't see where I came from!" Helen closed her eyes, the pain on her weathered face breaking my heart. "Vannie," the old woman whispered. "You told me he was a good man. You told me he loved you." "He doesn't love anyone, Mom!" Vanessa cried. I looked down at Lily. The little girl was trembling, clutching the hem of my apron. Her oversized red coat looked far too heavy for her small frame. "Hannah," Lily whispered up to me. "Why is Mommy yelling at Daddy?" I knelt down, wrapping my arms around the child. "It's going to be okay, sweetie. Don't look at them. Look at me." While I held her, I felt the fabric of her red coat. It was stiff. Unusually thick around the lining of the back panel. It crackled slightly when I pressed my hand against it. "Marcus," Luca said quietly. "If you had my mother's jewelry... that means you were the one who opened the door for the hitmen fifteen years ago." Marcus realized there was no talking his way out of this. He lunged. Not for Luca. He lunged for Vanessa. He grabbed her by the arm, pulling her violently in front of him as a shield, while his other hand reached into his waistband and pulled out a black handgun. Screams erupted in the dining room. Chairs crashed to the floor as wealthy guests scrambled backward, diving under the long mahogany table. "Nobody moves!" Marcus roared, pressing the barrel of the gun against Vanessa’s temple. "Security, back off! Or I paint the wall with her!" Luca’s guards froze, their hands hovering over their holstered weapons. Luca stood perfectly still. "Let her go, Marcus. She's the mother of your child." Marcus laughed harshly. "You think I care about the kid? The kid was just a prop. A way to keep Vanessa desperate and compliant." Hearing those words, Lily buried her face in my shoulder and sobbed. The answer was clear: Marcus was a traitor who orchestrated the murder of Luca's mother to rise to power. But the open question remained: Why did he need Vanessa to marry Luca today? What was the endgame of this elaborate fraud? "You're not getting out of this house, Marcus," Luca said. "Even if you walk out that door, you have nowhere to go." Marcus grinned, showing his teeth. "That's where you're wrong, boss." He looked directly at the little girl crying in my arms. "Lily," Marcus snapped. "Come here." The child flinched. She looked at him with terrified, tear-filled eyes. "No," I said, holding her tighter. Marcus aimed the gun directly at my chest. "Send the kid over here, maid. Or you die first." "I said no." I stared down the barrel of the gun. I thought of my own mother, lying in her small apartment, waiting for me to come home. I couldn't let this monster take a child. "Mommy!" Lily cried. "What about the blue papers?" Marcus’s face twisted in rage. "Shut up, Lily!" But the child kept crying. "Mommy, what about the blue papers Daddy told you to make Mr. Moretti sign tonight? The ones in my coat?"
